Bhubaneswar: Odisha has taken lead in organizing financial literacy and service delivery (SAKSHAM) Centers that will act as a single window system for basic financial requirements of the self-help groups (SHG)s.
According to a senior official, a successful SAKSHM Centre was organised in Brajasundarpur of Ranapur Block in Nayagarh District recently.
Other districts have also been successfully conducting such initiatives, he said.
As part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, a total 152 SAKSHAM centres were launched across 77 districts of 13 states under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) of the Ministry of Rural Development during October 4-8.
The Centre for Financial Literacy & Service Delivery (CFL&SD) would act as one stop solution/single window system for basic financial needs of Self-Help Group (SHG) households in rural areas.
The main objective of the center is to provide financial literacy & facilitate delivery of financial services (savings, credit, insurance, pensions etc.) to SHG members and rural poor.
These Centers will be managed by SHG network, largely at the level of the Cluster Level Federations (CLFs), with the help of trained Community Resource Persons (CRPs).
These trained CRPs are provided six days residential training at Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) established by the Lead Bank of the district.
All of these resources persons, popularly known as Financial Literacy Community Resource person (FL CRPs) also provided a training tool kit in vernacular languages.
The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has also developed the mobile & web based SAKSHAM application which will be used by the community resource person of the Centre to know the penetration of various financial services for each SHG & village, identify major gaps and accordingly provide training and deliver the required financial services.
This application will also measure the impact of the program on regular interval for mid-course correction in strategy, if any.
13 State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs) have conducted block and district level programs in which women SHG members, financial literacy resource persons, Bankers, officials of district administration, public representatives and other important functionaries participated in the launch event.
The States include Odisha, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Maharashtra,Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.
Based on the experiences of the Centers in these sStates, the initiative will be scaled up in other SRLMs and intensive Blocks.
